The Big 12 named Texas head coach Rick Barnes the conferences’ Coach of the Year on Sunday after the Longhorns’ 22-9 regular season finish. This is the fourth occasion Barnes has been named Big 12 Coach of the Year.

It wasn’t the best record Barnes has had at Texas, but considering the circumstances, it may be the most impressive. With just one scholarship upperclassman on the roster, Barnes led the Longhorns to a third place finish in the Big 12 after the team was projected to be eighth in the preseason.

This early prediction came on the heels of an offseason where Barnes lost his top four returning scorers, along with off-injured forward Jaylen Bond, for a myriad of reasons. One, Myck Kabongo, left for the NBA. Another, Ioannis Papapetrou, received an offer in Europe he could not pass up. The other three — Sheldon McClellan, Julien Lewis and Bond — opted to transfer in large part because of personal differences with Barnes.

The mass exit of his top players coupled with the only missed NCAA tournament of the Barnes era the previous season, led many to believe 2013-14 could be Barnes’ last year in Austin.

Instead, Barnes completely altered the framework of the program. He changed attitudes, the type of players he recruited and reworked the roster into a workmanlike unit. Texas now thrives on crashing the boards and out-hustling opponents on a nightly basis.

Texas won’t miss the NCAA tournament for a second straight year, and now there is little to no risk of Barnes joining his friend Mack Brown in the unemployed coaches’ line.

It doesn’t look like he will for a while either. The Longhorns are young and set up for success years down the line, as all of the team’s scholarship players are expected to return next season.

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